Milosevic may see soldiers' trial as media diversion

From left: Ramirez, Stone and Gonzales as they appeared on Serb television  ALSO Behind the faces of captured U.S. soldiers The Geneva Conventions: Prisoners of war

Captives 'puppets on a stage'

April 2, 1999
Web posted at: 1:14 p.m. EST (1814 GMT)

In this story: Clinton: 'No basis for trial' Confusion works in Milosevic's favor RELATED STORIES, SITES

(CNN) -- The plan announced by Yugoslav authorities to put three captured U.S. Army soldiers on trial, possibly on Friday, is a diversionary tactic by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a war crimes expert believes.

The trial "is just a stage," and the U.S. soldiers are "puppets on a stage," said Cherif Bassiouni, a former war crimes investigator who has studied alleged Geneva Conventions violations by Yugoslavia in Bosnia.

"I'm sure he will keep them alive," Bassiouni told CNN on Friday. "The trial is designed to get the American media attention on that particular show that's being staged for us. (Milosevic) will use these men in an illegal way to detract attention from the ethnic cleansing and other crimes that he's committing."

The captive soldiers, all members of the 1st Infantry Division, are Staff Sgts. Andrew Ramirez and Christopher Stone and Spc. Steven M. Gonzales.

The U.S. State Department is pressing Yugoslavia through the Swedish government to allow representatives from the Swedish Embassy in Belgrade or the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit the captives.

The Swedes "have not been able to obtain that access, and that is troubling to us," State Department spokesman James Rubin said Friday.

Yugoslavia broke off diplomatic relations with the United States after the NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia began 10 days ago, and Sweden is now acting as an intermediary between the two countries.

Clinton: 'No basis for trial'

Bassiouni says Milosevic will use the three captive Americans to divert attention from the alleged ethnic cleansing he's committing

President Bill Clinton warned Milosevic again Friday that the Yugoslav leader will be held responsible for the safety and welfare of the U.S. soldiers.

"There was no basis for them to be taken, no basis for them to be held and absolutely no justification for putting them on trial," Clinton said.

Serb television reported that the U.S. soldiers, who disappeared late Wednesday near the Macedonian border with Yugoslavia, would face a military court proceeding beginning Friday in Pristina, the provincial capital of Kosovo.

Clinton said the soldiers are prisoners of war and protected by the Geneva Convention of 1949, which forbids putting captives of any armed conflict on trial.

The Yugoslav army said it does not consider the three men prisoners of war because Yugoslavia is not formally at war with NATO.

Serb authorities maintain that the three men were captured on Yugoslav territory. NATO and U.S. officials have said the men were part of an international peacekeeping force in Macedonia on a routine border patrol and they are still investigating the circumstances of their capture.

Confusion works in Milosevic's favor

Gutman warns that the fate of the captured soldiers is in the hands of Milosevic

Confusion about the legal status of the three men, the charges against them and the circumstances of their capture are all part of Milosevic's game, Bassiouni said.

"You will hear conflicting reports coming out of (Yugoslavia), all of it designed to get American attention away from the ethnic cleansing," Bassiouni said.

Roy Gutman, author of "Crimes of War," agreed with Bassiouni that the fate of the soldiers ultimately rests with Milosevic and not with a Yugoslav court.

"The Milosevic government has taken over and corrupted the entire judicial system in Yugoslavia," Gutman told CNN. "It has no relation to justice."

Gutman said Milosevic may use the captives as bargaining chips, as in the case of hostages taken during the Bosnian conflict, which ended in 1995.

"It is not inconceivable that (Milosevic) will have them sentenced to some kind of suspended sentence and offer them in exchange for something," Gutman said. "He could sentence them to anything he wants, up to death."

Meanwhile, relatives and friends of the captured men wait and hope.

Frank Jasso, an uncle of Andrew Ramirez in San Antonio, Texas, said that when he saw Ramirez on a Serb television report broadcast internationally, he could tell that his nephew was in pain.

"Not because of any beating," Jasso said, "but because he's in a foreign country and anything can happen to him. We just hope it doesn't happen."

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